Muttalik boasted on that first day of campaigning of being part of the group of people who demolished the Babri Masjid in 1992.

Despite campaigning for merely two days in the Bangalore South constituency and a few more in Dharwad, the leader of the right-wing Sri Rama Sene outfit Pramod Muttalik managed to attract enough attention towards himself and the BJP, whose leaders H N Ananth Kumar and Prahlad Joshi, he exclusively targeted in his campaign, while praising Narendra Modi.

Muttalik is contesting as an Independent in Bangalore South and Dharwad.

Muttalik, who filed his nomination from Bangalore South constituency through postal means, made a brief appearance in the Basavanagudi region of the constituency one morning after Cobrapost released its sting tapes on the Babri Masjid demolition.

In the first day of his campaigning in Bangalore, Muttalik handed over pamphlets of his achievements as a protector of Hindu culture to people at bus stops and tea shops – including a few college girls who seemed to recognize him as one of the men who was arrested for a Sri Rama Sene attack on women at a pub in Mangalore in 2009.

On the first day of campaigning, Muttalik turned vitriolic towards the BJP and accused the party he had been trying to get into just the week before of losing the stomach for fighting the Hindutva battle and abandoning the Ram Mandir and other temple issues for the sake of power.

Muttalik boasted on that first day of campaigning of being part of the group of people who demolished the Babri Masjid in 1992.

In the second round of campaigning in Bangalore South over the last weekend, Muttalik released two books targeting candidate Ananth Kumar — one linking Kumar to a Rs 14,000 crore Hudco scam and the second linking him with corporate lobbyist Nira Radia of the 2G fame.

The BJP filed a complaint before the Election Commission against Muttalik for making malicious and personalized attacks even as Muttalik claimed the books were based on common knowledge.